Running Man
by freshfables
Summary: "On your right," came the new addition to the onslaught of humor..."We can't be blamed if he can't keep up with two 95 year old's can we pal?" Bucky had joined them at last on their runs. Sam has been taken. Pебенок has entered Bucky's life once again: and adventure, mayhem, fighting, fall outs and "secretive business" with all ensue... Sam is right on the edge of war and rebellion
1. Can you keep up old man?

Running Man

"On your left," Sam sighed as he received the familiar taunt once again (for the 2nd flippin' time in 7 minutes!)

"On your right," came the new addition to the onslaught of humour, as James Buchanan Barnes or "Bucky" came sprinting past him, his hair pulled back into a loose bun with stray locks falling around his face, and equipped with full running gear. He had taken to joining Sam and Steve on their morning jogging (or in their case sprinting) sessions; it appeared to be easy for Bucky to keep pace with Steve, and so came to be the double-barrelled taunts every. single. time.

"Yeah…very funny guys, it honestly gets better every time!" Sam puts on a futile effort to at least match their pace for a few strides but is once again disappointed as he feels their huge, powerful bounds eat up the ground in quick succession- pulling his chance further away from him.

"I…I…hang on...I ….phewwww…" His breath is ripped from him as he comes to a grinding halt, placing his hands onto his knees and attempting to catch his breath.

"You okay there Sam?!" Steve called over his shoulder as he continue on, his motherly concern shining through, only to be playfully scolded by Bucky who called back a response loud enough for Sam to hear,

"We can't be blamed if he can't keep up with two 95 year olds can we pal?"

It became apparent to Sam that he was never going to catch up and so resorted to good old insults,

"Oh that's right fossil face, keep running or I'm gonna' have to kick both your pensioned asses!"

All he could do was watch as the smirking super soldiers vanished around the corner of the Lincoln memorial.

It was at this precise moment that he realised something was amiss, something strange or out of place. Daily, he ran this route and daily meant that he had all but memorised every path and nook or cranny. So why was he so suddenly struck by such an uncomfortable feeling? It was almost as if his surroundings had shifted or changed.

"Hello?" He had absolutely no idea why he called out like that but honestly, he had no idea what else he was expected to do.

No response came.

For a moment he considered if it was one of those really fanatical fans of Cap's from his fight in New York, who sometimes just showed up out of nowhere and asked even for _his_ autograph simply because Cap was his mate.

"Did you wanna see Cap or something?" Shaking his head in disbelief at why he thought that was a logical thing to ask, come on Sammy boy get a grip!

"Look, if you're out there I kind of wanna see you…" Okay, he wasn't going to lie but this was getting a little weird and perhaps he was kind of hoping that bit too much that Cap and Bucky would round the corner any second.

Come on, come on, come on you pair of slipper wearing freaks come on! Although he knew that I reality they would have only left about a twenty seconds and it might take them at least another 4 minutes before they would round the corner again.

Come on, come on!

Please say that what he just heard was not the click of a loaded magazine…

"Okay this is getting ridiculous, who's there!" Maybe he was getting a little hysterical now- a ridiculous notion seeing as this could very well be something as meaningless as a terrier in the undergrowth or something but everything he's dealt with lately made him kind of jumpy.

One last surveillance of his immediate surroundings told him that he should leave the area- courteous of his military training- and so began a slow and laboured walk in the same direction he knew that his two friends would come from, hoping to bump into them.

Yet even after leaving the spot that felt so alienated to him, he was still acutely aware of a certain shadow that wallowed in his own. Every step, every shift in balance and every glance was watched and followed.

Fed up and slightly unnerved the Falcon whirled around to meet the mysterious presence head on- he'd been trained to deal with worse!

"Whoever you are, and whoever you work for I don't care- just show yourself or stop following me!" He knew that was a gamble, shouting into thin air like a mad man, but he couldn't very well keep walking and do nothing.

Silence.

Do not falter Sammy boy, keep waiting.

Still silence.

Come on Steve, any time now would we great!

Still silence.

Then, "Can I have your autograph please?" In a voice so sweet you could make 50 pounds of Jam with it.

The voice had startled Sam as he now looked around frantically for the child's voice, until he realised that the child was simply below his eye line and knelt next to her small frame with a relieved smile on his face.

Reaching out towards him was a small hand, clutching a pad of paper and pen with a neat little inscription of 'autographs' in the top right corner of the small page.

"Wow, you gave me a scare then doll!" He took the paper and pen from her welcomingly, "now who do we have here? Karen? Sweet! I love the name Karen! So I'll write: to Karen, keep flying high, love your buddy Falcon, huh? Does that sound good to you?" The girl he knelt before nodded her head enthusiastically with the biggest and most grateful grin that he had ever seen.

It took less than a minute to scribble down what he said he would and rise to his feet again.

"Well you just made my day Karen!" He smoothed his hand lightly over her hair in affection and giggled at how she beamed up at him after his sudden shaky ordeal.

After bidding farewell they both went their separate ways-Karen had explained that her mother was at a shop not 100 metres away and that she was to meet her there- and Sam, feeling slightly revitalised, began a steady jog towards where he knew Steve and Bucky would soon emerge.

That was until he felt the sting.

It was acute, intense and effective.

The sting consumed him, became all that he knew.

Turning slowly, he found Karen standing firm a good 15 metres from him and Icer set rigidly in her hand.

"Hydra" ghosted over his lips as he felt the realisation take him into nothingness.

Karen or ребенок as she was tagged by her organisation saw the man fall to his knees and began the second part of her mission imperative- defend the man until extraction arrives.

Obviously she could not extract him herself, she was by far the youngest member of her agency and so was only suitable for distraction missions. Oh- but she was lucky though, he father was one of the officers in the extraction teams and so she got both early onset training and a good selection of important missions.

"Pебенок is he stable?" That was agent Henley- the extraction team must have arrived.

"He is sir." The young agent stepped aside to allow the ten men and women all clothed in black tactical gear to saunter past.

"Good work ребенок" one of the women called to her as she swept past- her older sister and only sibling спокойствие- meaning tranquillity.

Their family took pride in their rational and logical approach- always focused on the mission and nothing more.

It took less than one minute to extract the mission and vacate the area, just as the two soldiers rounded the corner.

He knew.

Bucky knew almost instinctively that something had happened. They hadn't passed Sam in a good 4 minutes and that wasn't right.

"Steve where is Sam?" Already Bucky's voice had become monotone and parallels that of the mind- set he was now adopting- the Asset.

Their pace had begun to slow to a walk as they both scanned the perimeter.

"Steve, he's gone. It's Hydra…" Steve wrenched his gaze away from the path to look at his friends darkened face, he knew that look- it was the look of the Asset.

"…they're back."

 _Next time…_

" _Bucky watch it!" Sam could just make out the vague outline of the Winter Soldier behind the wall of armed men, and he could definitely make out the sniper that had Bucky and Natasha perfectly in his site line…_


	2. Take the Shot

Chapter 2- Take the Shot

"Do you know if there are any Hydra bases or anything nearby…anywhere at all that we could at least try?" Steve was clutching at straws now, desperate to do something before Sam was too far away for them to track. He paced back and forth along the pavement, brow furrowed with barely concealed frustration.

"Call agent Romanoff, she's being de-briefed not far from here; we could use her expertise." Bucky was mechanical, already quickly scanning the scene, eyes darting to and fro for even the slightest stone out of place.

"Are you sure?" Steve pulled out his Nokia phone after receiving a somewhat off putting glare form Bucky, and frantically punched in Natasha's mobile number (they'd tried to get him to use speed dial but he hadn't quite mastered it yet.)

"Natasha? Yeah it's me… No I'm fine… It's Sam…" There was a short pause which seemed to last for hours. A silence filled the gap, it lasted so long in fact that Steve thought she'd just hung up on him.

"I'm on my way," was the simple and sharp response of the deadly red-head. Steve was about to say something else when he heard the all-telling drone of an ended call.

"She's on her way."

Bucky just gave a terse nod to this statement, as he seemed to have finished what he'd been doing.

"All I can tell is that they headed that way about 2 minutes ago." He stated, sharply pointing in the precise direction that Sam had been taken in.

Both men were about to set off in this direction, when a gunshot sounded about 500 m away.

Reverberating and refracting off of every surface around them. It almost seemed to bound its way from one building to the next; the sound so deafeningly loud next the Lincoln memorial, as it ricochet of each individual pillar, that even Bucky flinched.

Neither said a word, but simply ran.

They ran, and ran, and ran until they were all but blurs down the street, legs pounding out incredible strides.

It was then that Steve saw it, just that split second too late…

"What the…?!" Skidding to a halt, he pulled up just short of the metal clad side of an enormous helli-carrier, parked soak in their running path. It turns out that Bucky wasn't so fortunate in his halt, the stop causing him to collide full force with Steve's broad shoulders, sending the larger man somersaulting into the plane.

With a loud smack, the sheer weight of Captain America's body slamming into one of the side panels caused it to cave in on impact, leaving Steve lying amongst a heap of crumpled metal. He groaned and shoved himself away from the wreckage,

"Buck, did you have to?" Is all the moaning he could do before a second gun shot fired not 50 m away now.

Simply glancing at the devastation he had caused ( _and checking that Steve was actually okay_ ) the Asset took off at a sprint towards this new sound, completely unaware of the disbelieving look he was now receiving for his friend.

"Guess I'll get myself out shall I?" Steve muttered under his breath as he started to run after his friend- briefly glancing back towards the helli-carrier one last time, he would have to deal with that later.

Just ahead Steve could see that Bucky had come to a stop, staring hard at something above them.

"Bucky? Bucky what is it?!" He called across the distance between them.

"Up." Is all that he said, causing Steve to automatically follow Bucky's eyes and saw what his friend had been seeing.

Sam.

Hydra.

Sam and Hydra on the roof.

"You gotta' be kidding me?" Sighing quietly at the prospect of the dangerous situation they were both about to run right into, he turned, surprised to see Bucky already moving towards another, nearby house with a good flat roof- on his own. _Never wants me to fight_ , Steve thought fondly.

The soldier didn't make it though.

Just before he reaching the wall of the house, the Winter Soldier received a brutal slam to the side as someone jump-kicked him with commendable force. Although ineffective in pushing the soldier down, it did cause him to momentarily lose balance, which was more than enough for his adversaries that had been hidden in shadow.

A small group of men swarmed around him; he ran through the possibilities in his head- either they wanted to: capture him, kill him, capture Steve, kill Steve or it was a trap. But if they were preventing him from reaching Sam, then why did they have Sam on so obvious a display? Broad daylight, on a very high and very visible viewpoint, a helli-carrier, and with no clear end goal… What was going on?

With brilliant speed, the Assets' new adversaries took advantage of the situation, and revealed an small electric disc. Nothing too fancy- nothing immediately threatening- but almost deadly to the Asset and his metal arm.

Steve saw the disc even before Bucky himself did and acted upon impulse,

"Bucky, here!" He called, just as he threw the only weapon on his person to Bucky- the Nokia.

The movements that followed were so coordinated and smooth that without sufficient experience a person might have believed that they never happened. The Winter Soldier leaped and grabbed the phone in mid- air with his flesh hand, bringing the sharper edge smack down onto the pressure point around the neck of his adversary as he landed, the disc flying away from the man's hand, all without his metal arm having to even touch the man- _nice one Steve._

He shook his head- he needed the Asset for this task- focus.

"Buck go! Go and get Sam!" Steve's eyes hardened as he levelled his gaze with his opponents as he approached them.

"I'll take care of these punks…" He muttered in a surprisingly darker tone, just as he and Bucky made a smooth transition and his friend began to climb to the roof.

"About time!" Natasha snapped as the Winter Soldier came into view. She had been lurking behind a small piece of metal that sat on the roof just across from the very roof that Sam was being held captive on.

Bucky inwardly startled but did not outwardly show it, _the Asset is need- not Bucky- focus._

"You were fast." Is all that he felt he needed to say in way of greeting the red-head, as he sauntered easily along the roof top. Natasha seemed to almost bound along next to him, he red bob bouncing up and down even as she crouched lower,

"I have my ways." Is all that she felt obliged to respond.

There were a few moments of silence as both assassins observed this peculiar situation, only a few moments ago had she been sat in a boring, stuffy meeting, stuck with a group of boring, stuffy old men being de-briefed. Now she found herself thrown in amidst this mystery kidnapping. It was obvious that Bucky was thinking the same the thing, though she doubted he saw himself as Bucky right now. Before, she had never understood why he became so cold and calculating when they went on missions- he didn't speak, smile, laugh, or act even remotely like the brilliant Bucky Barnes that she knew. It was only after several missions that did she finally understood. He was trained to become the Asset. The Asset and the Winter Soldier. The soldier was efficient, deadly and effective. Bucky Barnes was loving, care-free and social.

This is why she had taken it upon herself personally to complete three missions:

Have Bucky call her Natasha at least once and not just "Agent Romanoff"

To make him be Bucky on their missions and not the Asset

To give him a hug (even as Bucky Barnes he hated unnecessary physical contact)- that one she had a bet with Clint on though… she wasn't really one for hugs generally but she might just make a special exception.

"I can see him, he's gagged, restrained, and surrounded by at least 20 agents- all armed with standard issue taser, guns and one short knife." Natasha listened to Bucky's assessment of the situation attentively, already planning her no-mercy attack…

Sam could see that this was not going to end well. He could also see Steve was tearing through those Hydra agents with a rapidity not humanly possible. What he could definitely see nor did he expect to spot both Natasha and Bucky knelt a good 20 m away on the next roof across. He did not understand for the life of him why he or any of them were in this situation… but did he really want to find out? Currently he found himself on his knees, his hands cuffed and a dirty rag shoved in his mouth which tasted suspiciously of Pepsi- _uh, he hated Pepsi!_ A good 5 gun barrels were pointed his way- it wasn't looking good.

That was until the smoke grenade rolled to a stop just in front of him. It made a satisfying clunk as it hit the soldiers boot to his right (ironic), and immediately began to throw out layer upon layer of thick white smoke.

Then everyone appeared to move at once.

"Sam get down!" That was definitely Natasha, followed by the rattling of gun fire. Instinctively he threw himself to the floor amidst the chaos, only to be dragged to his feet a second later and rather unceremoniously heaved down some kind of ladder-thing and into something cold and metallic. The smoke was absolutely everywhere. He hadn't even a clue what was going on, other than the occasional grunt or cough from around him. Momentarily, a gust of wind threw the smoke from his eyes and revealed his position- lying in the back of a black van, surrounded by frantic soldiers and with a sniper perched precariously in a building just above him on his right.

"Bucky watch it!" Sam could just make out the vague outline of the Winter Soldier behind the wall of armed men, and he could definitely make out the sniper that had Bucky and Natasha perfectly in his site line… everyone turned towards the sniper as if in slow motion, lost in the inevitability of what was about to happen…

.

.

.

.

"No!" Yelled a small voice- that same voice from somewhere to his left.

"Нет, пожалуйста, не больно ему !" Was the last thing Sam heard in a thick Russian accent, as the black van door was slammed with evident haste, and the vehicle charged away- leaving the squeal of tiers and smoke behind.

 _This is a right mess…_ he thought to himself as he lay his head against the cold floor, that was until he heard the final shot sound in the distance. He lurched forward, sitting bolt upright and eyes wide- terror painted across his face.

 _Please no._

 _Next time…_

" _Pебенок, what have you done?!" The voice was strangled, soft with sorrow…_


End file.
